


What Comes of Racing Fitzwilliam Darcy in a Lake

by FanficCornerWriter19



Series: His Reason For Pride [6]
Category: Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen, The Scarlet Pimpernel - All Media Types
Genre: Darcy's Payback, Gen, The League's Little Joke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-10
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-03-16 05:51:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13629978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanficCornerWriter19/pseuds/FanficCornerWriter19
Summary: On another mission in March 1792, Percy is relieved when Tony spots a nice lake to swim in to relieve the heat of the day and wash himself off. However, when he races Tony and Fitz across the lake and back, he gets more than he bargained for.Or: How an off-handed remark nearly got Percy drowned - almost.





	What Comes of Racing Fitzwilliam Darcy in a Lake

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Pimpernel Memories](https://archiveofourown.org/works/257324) by [lirin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lirin/pseuds/lirin). 



> This story's idea was inspired by the chapter 'Lake Memories' in lirin's work 'Pimpernel Memories'. That chapter got me thinking about what would have happened had that been in an AU like mine...
> 
> Credits to lirin for the original plot line!
> 
> ~ALSO, this is from Percy's POV.

I put a hand over my eyes.

I am exceedingly uncomfortable in this clothing – a leather jerkin, ragged hose, just as ragged vest and sabots, and a crimson cap with a tricolour cockade pinned to it. It is far from the satin, velvet, and Mechline lace I am used to. Yet I must endure this demmed get-up somehow, for I am to rescue yet another family today. March 1792 and the work never ends for the Scarlet Pimpernel.

Meanwhile, Tony shouts from the top of the hill, “I see a lake! A good deep lake, and clear! It would be capital to swim in!”

Darcy, whom I have taken on this mission, shouts back, “Do you think you can race me across, Tony?”

“Aye!”

“Then come on!” With a sudden burst of energy Darcy sprints up the hill and down it, plunking his bag of clothes and weapons underneath a tree. “Is this a good place to camp for tonight, Percy?”

“I should think so, men,” I say, cresting the hill at last and looking at the sparkling blue lake that takes up the whole demmed landscape. Odd’s fish, but that does look nice after a long weary trek. I think I shall swim me a mile in that water. The sun is beating down on the water, but it’s only just begun to get hot.

Darcy grabs Tony’s sleeve and drags him toward the shorter end. “From this spot,” says he, “to that one” – pointing to a shady patch on the other end of the lake – “and back, you and I shall swim.”

“Let me join,” I interrupt. Both men look surprised, but Darcy shrugs and says, “Of course, chief.”

We crouch on the banks, and when Wyndham, who has by now taken an interest in the race, shouts, ‘GO!’ we three jump in and start swimming like begad waterwheels, our arms churning the water for a few seconds before we all level out.

The water is, as I suspected, delightfully cold, and I take pleasure in shooting through the clear stuff like an arrow, Darcy just behind me and Tony keeping neck and neck with him.

However, I start to flag by the two-third mark. Who knew a demmed lake could be so wide? Sink me if it didn’t look narrower from the hill! I swim on, determined not to let Darcy outpace me, for he is almost neck and neck with me, and Tony falling behind.

Dunking in my head, I cut for the preassigned spot like a fish, but I gasp for air as soon as I emerge, shaking my demmed locks out of my face. “Zounds!” I choke out, heaving myself up for a moment before floundering back out again – to the spot and back, I remember.

Sink me if I don’t start paddling like a dog, simply desperate to get to shore before I drown – it’s far too deep for even me to try standing up, and I am merely treading water until I can flop onto the bank of the other side. I quickly churn my weary arms – this is going to exercise me completely today – and make for the banks like a drowning man makes for the rope. Ah well, I am a drowning man at the moment!

I get one leg up onto the bank and splash out like a dog who has swum the entire Channel. “That lake be demmed!” I gasp.

Tony leaps out next, with Darcy a split second behind him. “Unsurprisingly, Percy wins,” Darcy remarks, slicking his drenched dark hair out of his face. How is he not panting? Did he go slower than he might have on purpose? Is that why Tony got in faster?

Once I have cleared the water from my mouth and eyes, I stand up, shaking the water from my shirt. I watch Darcy and Tony do the same, before Wyndham and the others applaud me. I smile and remark flippantly, “Ah well – sink me, but that lake was wider than it looked!”

Darcy turns his head toward me. “What did you say now?” he asks. “I could not hear you.”

“I said, sink me but that lake was much wider than it looked!” I repeat, smiling.

I only have a second to register the wicked glint in his eyes before he grabs me by the shoulders and heaves me into the lake like a sack of rocks.

Damn that man! The water’s cold comes as a shock, and I tread water desperately, floundering to shore with searing lungs and a mouth full of weeds. “Darcy, what was that for?” I sputter, spitting out the weeds as I clamber onto the grass once more.

He shrugs as Tony, with a smirk on his face, says, “Forgive me, Percy!” and pushes me back into the water.

And so it goes on until the whole band of seven is laughing like idiots - though very good-naturedly - and I am treading water with my tired limbs, feeling like I shall drown any minute now. Darcy at last gives me a hand up. “What in heaven and earth was that for?” I choke, spewing lake water as I am heaved onto good dry land.

He grins innocently, and I catch that demmed wicked glint in his eyes before I hear his reply:

“You did say to sink you.”


End file.
